Little Thoughts…

Chatper 6 Goodness

The act of managing ideas can be very difficult, especially when you are not the only one working on a project. When there is a team of people who are trying to come up with a design for a client, everyone is going to have different ideas and the hard part is coming together as a whole to decide on one design. Chapter 6 focuses on how teams should follow the decision process in order to manager their ideas and come up with a clear problem statement. Burken says understanding the problem can be difficult because new information becomes available at certain times and conflicts can be found within different solutions.

Burken talks about how creative work can pick up momentum and how trying to narrow down your design to the final one can be a problem for inexperienced designers. The author then goes on the discuss the steps you should take in narrowing down your decision on the final design. You start out with a few good designs, you research them, and then a final design should be chosen. I really like Burken’s explanation of steps in this section of the chapter because I feel I can apply them to my project for this class. I would like to use his steps when I start designing my packaging in order to help me narrow down my designs to the final one. Next, Burken talks about using a KJ Diagram to help consolidate ideas. You take a bunch of sticky notes and write ideas on them and stick them to the wall. Next, the lead designer starts moving ideas around and allows the rest of the team to move them around until they come up with something they are satisfied with. This is a great way to help team members stand back and look at their ideas and let them group the ideas together to get a better view of the “bigger picture.”

The final section of Chapter 6 talks about using prototypes and how they can help you confront problems head on. The author also talks about how using iterations can help people ask questions and evaluate the problem of the project in order to move forward. I feel I can use prototypes and iterations in my project to help me as I get closer to finalizing my designs.